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Go-Shu Australian Sake Brewery

Go-Shu Australian Sake Brewery

Go-Shu Australian Sake Brewery
4.5
Breweries
This location was reported permanently closed
What people are saying
Jackie M
By Jackie M
An inexpensive and exciting tour in Western Sydney
4.0 of 5 bubblesOct 2019
For a Western Sydney experience with a difference, head to the industrial back blocks of Penrith and visit Australia’s only sake brewery. The Go-Shu Australian Sake Brewery was originally created two decades ago in 1996 by a consortium of Australian and Japanese companies. Its mission – which hasn’t wavered – was to brew sake using Australian rice. Today the brewery is owned by Sun Masamune, a Japanese company with a 469 year history, who cleverly decided to invest in Aussie rice instead of following all the other Japanese sake brewers to California. For a very reasonable three bucks apiece, you can tour their brewery, kicking off in the Visitors' Centre with a film that explains the sake making process. Managing Director, Allan Noble, takes us through the factory himself, feeding us titbits of information along the way. For him, sake “needs character – you have to feel the passion of the brewers.” The sake-making process begins with polishing the rice, stripping away the husk. Junmai is a term for pure rice sake (where no distilled alcohol has been added) even if no milling has taken place. Junmai ginjo sakes have a minimum of 60% (or less) rice remaining, while junmai daiginjo sakes have a minimum of 50% (or less) rice remaining. Here Noble clues us in that the sake refridgerated storage after opening times (usually 2-3 weeks) do not apply to junmai daiginjo which will already lose some of its prettiness the next day. All milling at this sake brewery is between 60% and 50%, and is done on one of only six Shin-Nakano industrial polishing machines that exist outside of Japan. The polished rice is washed, soaked and steamed under the brewers’ watchful attention. The steamed rice then moves into a cedar-lined room, that smells a lot like a sauna, where it is sprinkled with koji mould and incubated for about two days. Little wooden masu cups are said to complement the sake making process, because they’re also fashioned out of cedar. We picked up a pair in the gift shop after spending time in this aromatic space. The koji-rice is mixed with special sake yeast and ultra-pure water for fermentation to begin. The rice is eaten by the koji enzymes and converted into glucose, and the yeast turns the glucose into alcohol. What sort of yeast you use effects how the sake smells and tastes – back in the Visitors' Centre you’ll see this when you try Shiruyaki Edo Genshu ($28) which is made on 300-year-old yeast (Edo Genroku period) plucked from a time capsule. It’s a genshu sake, meaning it hasn’t been diluted with water to lower the alcohol percentage so it’s around 17.8%. It’s got a big dark caramel meets tobacco flavour that’s intriguing to savour. Between 20-25 days later, the fermenter is finally full of raw sake that has a cloudy appearance and sits around 18% alcohol. It is moved through an air filtration system that pulls out any yeast, koji or rice fibres left in the liquid. Go-Shu Nigori ($18/360ml), or cloudy sake, would skip this step and move straight to pasteurisation. It's quite a lovely, creamy drop that works best chilled against spicy food. Noble tells us it's also a great blue cheese match, which I'm keen to sample. The sake is then pasteurised and stored in tanks for three months to mature and mellow. Dangling overhead you’ll see a sugidama or cedar ball. Traditionally sake brewers hang them up green, and by the time they turn completely brown, they signify that the new season sake is ready for drinking. All that's left is for it to pass along their single-man operated bottling line, before 80% of their yearly million litres of Australian sake is shipped back to Japan for consumption. Despite this figure, sake’s popularity has actually declined, from 100% consumption down to 7-8%. This has come about through the Japanese people acquiring a more international palate, though sake is still a sentimental favourite for special occasions. Sake rates well on sustainability with Go-Shu having a zero-waste initiative that sees all remains used on local farms or in their skincare range. Sake is also is good for environmental management, with Go-Shu's medium-grain Japonica rice only harvested every fourth year in the Riverina town of Leeton (in between years see the crop rotated with peas and beans, then cattle). Australian water is a little softer than Japanese water (meaning it contains less minerals) so Go-Shu sakes tend towards rounder, silkier finishes. My personal favourite was the comfortably priced Go-Shu Nama ($17/740ml) that’s fruity and semi-sweet, but there’s also their black-label Go-Shu ($17/740ml) and their light and fruity Go-Shu Blue ($22/740ml) to wrap your lips around, particularly if you’re planning on consuming seafood. Noble is very generous with his time, making for a rich and unrushed experience that I never imagined I’d be having in the middle of Western Sydney for the princely sum of three bucks.

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ActRegular_traveller
Canberra, Australia2,589 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Jan 2016 • Couples
We were staying in Darling Harbour and decided over a weekend to visit the sake factory, so it was a case of making a phone call while we were on the way out to Penrith. Our call was returned in about half an hour and we booked in for a tour - it turned out that we were probably the only ones having a tour that day so it was very personal service.

Since we arrived about 15 minutes early, we started the tour early as well. They had only just returned from a New Year break and things were very quiet. An informative video (initially started in Japanese, but quickly changed to English) explained the history of the company, of rice growing in Australia and the brewing process for sake. Our guide then gave us some samples to taste and explained what each of them were (I particularly liked their "breezer" style lightly flavoured sake & their plum sake). There was also some discussion of traditional sake ceremony in Japan and how things are changing in Japanese culture. It was interesting to hear (and see) how the by-products of the process are used (and under-used - the highly nutritious yeast by-product is mainly used for cattle feed, whereas in Japan it is often consumed by people).

After this there was a tour of the brewery, from the rice polishing machines, through the adding of yeast and the brewing to bottling and packaging. The operation is highly automated, but since there was no sake being handled at the time we were able to get up close to all aspects of the process.

Extremely interesting. We bought some of their products which I hadn't seen before.
Written 13 January 2016
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

trapperphil44
Sydney, Australia93 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Sept 2014 • Family
What an eye opener. Joint Australian/Japanese partnership producing the best Sake with Aussie rice and local clear water that goes head to head with the best traditional Japanese brewers. The head Honshu was very knowledgeable and entertaining and made our large group very welcome. Although I have drunk chilled and warm Sake before I now understand how to enjoy a quality Sake. The by-products, skin care & soap are also excellent. A small fee is payable and bookings are a must due to production schedules.
Written 3 September 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Jackie M
Sydney, Australia7,800 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Oct 2019
For a Western Sydney experience with a difference, head to the industrial back blocks of Penrith and visit Australia’s only sake brewery. The Go-Shu Australian Sake Brewery was originally created two decades ago in 1996 by a consortium of Australian and Japanese companies. Its mission – which hasn’t wavered – was to brew sake using Australian rice. Today the brewery is owned by Sun Masamune, a Japanese company with a 469 year history, who cleverly decided to invest in Aussie rice instead of following all the other Japanese sake brewers to California.

For a very reasonable three bucks apiece, you can tour their brewery, kicking off in the Visitors' Centre with a film that explains the sake making process. Managing Director, Allan Noble, takes us through the factory himself, feeding us titbits of information along the way. For him, sake “needs character – you have to feel the passion of the brewers.”

The sake-making process begins with polishing the rice, stripping away the husk. Junmai is a term for pure rice sake (where no distilled alcohol has been added) even if no milling has taken place. Junmai ginjo sakes have a minimum of 60% (or less) rice remaining, while junmai daiginjo sakes have a minimum of 50% (or less) rice remaining. Here Noble clues us in that the sake refridgerated storage after opening times (usually 2-3 weeks) do not apply to junmai daiginjo which will already lose some of its prettiness the next day. All milling at this sake brewery is between 60% and 50%, and is done on one of only six Shin-Nakano industrial polishing machines that exist outside of Japan.

The polished rice is washed, soaked and steamed under the brewers’ watchful attention. The steamed rice then moves into a cedar-lined room, that smells a lot like a sauna, where it is sprinkled with koji mould and incubated for about two days. Little wooden masu cups are said to complement the sake making process, because they’re also fashioned out of cedar. We picked up a pair in the gift shop after spending time in this aromatic space.

The koji-rice is mixed with special sake yeast and ultra-pure water for fermentation to begin. The rice is eaten by the koji enzymes and converted into glucose, and the yeast turns the glucose into alcohol. What sort of yeast you use effects how the sake smells and tastes – back in the Visitors' Centre you’ll see this when you try Shiruyaki Edo Genshu ($28) which is made on 300-year-old yeast (Edo Genroku period) plucked from a time capsule. It’s a genshu sake, meaning it hasn’t been diluted with water to lower the alcohol percentage so it’s around 17.8%. It’s got a big dark caramel meets tobacco flavour that’s intriguing to savour.

Between 20-25 days later, the fermenter is finally full of raw sake that has a cloudy appearance and sits around 18% alcohol. It is moved through an air filtration system that pulls out any yeast, koji or rice fibres left in the liquid. Go-Shu Nigori ($18/360ml), or cloudy sake, would skip this step and move straight to pasteurisation. It's quite a lovely, creamy drop that works best chilled against spicy food. Noble tells us it's also a great blue cheese match, which I'm keen to sample.

The sake is then pasteurised and stored in tanks for three months to mature and mellow. Dangling overhead you’ll see a sugidama or cedar ball. Traditionally sake brewers hang them up green, and by the time they turn completely brown, they signify that the new season sake is ready for drinking. All that's left is for it to pass along their single-man operated bottling line, before 80% of their yearly million litres of Australian sake is shipped back to Japan for consumption. Despite this figure, sake’s popularity has actually declined, from 100% consumption down to 7-8%. This has come about through the Japanese people acquiring a more international palate, though sake is still a sentimental favourite for special occasions.

Sake rates well on sustainability with Go-Shu having a zero-waste initiative that sees all remains used on local farms or in their skincare range. Sake is also is good for environmental management, with Go-Shu's medium-grain Japonica rice only harvested every fourth year in the Riverina town of Leeton (in between years see the crop rotated with peas and beans, then cattle).

Australian water is a little softer than Japanese water (meaning it contains less minerals) so Go-Shu sakes tend towards rounder, silkier finishes. My personal favourite was the comfortably priced Go-Shu Nama ($17/740ml) that’s fruity and semi-sweet, but there’s also their black-label Go-Shu ($17/740ml) and their light and fruity Go-Shu Blue ($22/740ml) to wrap your lips around, particularly if you’re planning on consuming seafood. Noble is very generous with his time, making for a rich and unrushed experience that I never imagined I’d be having in the middle of Western Sydney for the princely sum of three bucks.
Written 3 October 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Leanne W
Penrith, Australia49 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Mar 2014 • Friends
Go-Shu might look like a small place! but it's well worth a visit and you are only a phone call away from a guided tour, video presentation and tasting! Sake products and other skin care products made from rice can be purchased here. I would recommend that this place would appeal to those over 18. Tours can be arranged and there is only a very nominal fee which includes a tasting of the sake products made on the premises/
Written 1 June 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

catchfab
Sydney, Australia489 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Apr 2017 • Friends
If you would like to try some sake or wonderful plum wine then visit the brewery. They have tours but you need to book. Hand cream and soap are a must have. The manager Alan is very helpful and passionate about his role to keep the brewery running smoothly. A little out of the way but worth a visit.
Written 19 May 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Amanda T
24 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Came here for the first time this year after living in the area my whole life. I would ring ahead and let them know you'd like a tour. This is what I did. They started with a video about sake and then we talked about it and tried some sakes. From memory we had to pay about $4. The man was extremely knowledgable and quite friendly. I liked their plum wine and tsunami rtd's the best.

Sadly we didn't get to see the process of how it's made in their brewery.
Written 17 August 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Revenue impacts the experiences featured on this page, learn more.
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